Fresh on the Job
Posted on Thu Mar 21st, 2013 @ 11:23pm by Ensign Jesse Eckles & Captain Vorn Krace
Mission:
Renewed Beginnings
Location: Temporary Office Suites - Proxima Maintenance Yards
Timeline: 1018 Hours
ON: [[Corridor, Proxima Maintenance Yards, 1018 Hours]]
Ensign Jesse Eckles made his way along a quiet stretch of corridor aboard one of the Proxima Maintenance Yards' primary docking facilities. The young flight control officer knew his new assignment, the Luna-class USS Iapetus, was docked nearby because he'd seen the ship as his transport was approaching the station. It had only taken a little over twenty-four hours for the high-speed personnel transport to make its journey from Earth's solar system to Alpha Centauri. After having spent the last few months on extended transfer listings, twenty-four hours hardly seemed like the blink of an eye to Jesse. Now that he was finally here, however, he could feel a bit of anxiety starting to well up inside of him.
This was his first time reporting in as an actual, commissioned Starfleet officer and things were already getting off to an unusual start. He'd done a bit of investigating after learning of his assignment to the Iapetus in hopes that it might give him a bit of a leg up as far as familiarizing himself with the ship. The Iapetus, he'd discovered, had just completed a tour of duty in a region of the Delta Quadrant known as the "Round Table" and was at the Proxima Yards undergoing a maintenance overhaul. When he'd spoken to one of the attendants on the concourse, they'd told him there was still quite a bit of work being done on the Iapetus' primary bridge module and that the captain had set up a temporary office on the station.
Jesse glanced quickly at a nearby doorway to get his bearings before consulting the PADD in his hand. Most of the rooms in this part of the station were set aside for temporary use which meant there were no names or identifying markers other than the basic numerical address system. Thankfully, if Jesse was reading his PADD correctly, the office he was looking for should have been only two doors away. Jesse slowed his pace and came to a stop in front of the appropriate door. "Here goes nothing," he muttered to himself as he reached out to press the door chime.
[[Temporary Office]]
"Come in," Captain Krace called from his position standing over his desk, looking down at the myriad PADDs strewn over it - mostly the PADDs of the larger variety, detailing and providing schematics for all of the changes currently being made to the ship. Much of the work had already been done in the weeks that the captain had been on leave on Earth, but he had deliberately stayed away from any details of his work life whilst he was away - it would have defeated the point of a vacation, even if it was just to his old family home.
The PADD he was currently looking at displayed the new schematics for the bridge module that had replaced the old one, and still needed enough work on deck one that it was still an off-limits zone - hence the need for him to set up his temporary office on-board the station. He looked up from the PADD and stood straight to lift his weight from the tabletop as he heard the sound of the door opening.
"Ensign, how can I help you?" he asked, clearly not able to immediately put a face to a name.
It was obvious to Jesse by the collection of PADDs strewn across the captain's desk that he'd caught his Commanding Officer in the midst of something work related. Stepping forward, the young man came to take up a somewhat formal stance before the desk. "Jesse Eckles, sir," he replied, "your new Chief Flight Control Officer."
"Ah, yes. Commander Walex mentioned that Sarfleet would be sending us our new helmsman," Krace said, his memory turning to one of the multiple things that had been left to the XO whilst he was on leave. "Fresh from the Academy, I understand?"
"I wouldn't exactly say fresh..." Jesse began without even realizing the words were even out of his mouth. He paused, glancing hesitantly in the captain's direction before continuing, "that is to say, I've spent the last few months on the extended transfer listing. Seems like it's been forever, if you know what I mean...sir."
"Yes, I can recall the way that felt," the captain responded. He obviously hadn't had any periods like that since taking the command track, but every officer had at least a couple of periods of extended waiting for their transfer orders to come through. Quite often that was the situation that most of the crew of newly mothballed ships had to sit through, and Krace quietly thanked whatever force there may be that he and his crew had been able to hop pretty much the same day off of the Lincoln and on to the Iapetus. "When did you graduate?" he asked, keeping the conversation going.
"Graduated back in June, sir," Jesse replied, "They've had me doing a little of this and a little of that since then. It's good to finally have an actual assignment, though."
"I'm sure it is," Vorn answered with a smile. "As I'm sure you've probably seen though, the ship is still waiting for the techs to finish up, so we'll need to find something else to do in the meantime." As he spoke, one of the other PADDs on his desk caught his attention. "I take it you're qualified for shuttles as well as starships?" he asked, as he swapped the one currently in his hand for the newly updated shuttlebay manifest.
"Yes, sir," Jesse said. The question seemed rather odd at first, but just because someone was familiar with one area of flight control didn't always mean they were up-to-date on their certifications in others. Whether it had been flying actual shuttles on detached assignment or practising in the holodeck, Jesse had managed to find some way of keeping himself up to speed in the months since he'd graduated.
"Well, we've been assigned a new Delta-class runabout for the shuttlebay manifest, which needs collecting from Utopia Planetia. Fancy a short trip?" the captain asked, memorising a few quick details off the PADD, such as identification numbers and the specific docking bay.
Jesse shouldn't have been surprised the captain wanted to put his skills to good use. Given that parts of the Iapetus including the bridge were still inaccessible due to the refit, it wasn't as if he would be needed to pilot the ship any time soon. The trip to Utopia Planetia and back would only take a couple of hours at most. He would be back in plenty of time to start working on settling in. "Shouldn't be a problem," he replied after a moment, "how soon do I leave?"
"Well we have two of our own shuttles which need returning to make room for it in the shuttlebay, so we'll each take one and both return in the runabout," Krace explained as he pulled up the list of shuttle changes. "Unless you've got anything else you need to take care of first, meet me in the station's shuttle hangar in twenty minutes. I'll arrange for them both to be released to us in the meantime."
"Aye, sir," Jesse said, standing up a little straighter as he did so, "Station's shuttle hangar...twenty minutes."
"Excellent. I'll meet you there."
OFF
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer
&
Ensign Jesse Eckles
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Iapetus
